Software that you would like to have for Linux

[AZgl1800]

If,

TurboTax would support Linux, my Gateway Desktop would suddenly turn green.
But until that time happens, it will stay Win7 to dooms day.

Don't mention the Cloud version of TurboTax, ain't going to happen.

[xenopeek]

If,

TurboTax would support Linux

This may not be up to your needs but to let others know it's available http://opentaxsolver.sourceforge.net/index.html.

As for TurboTax, have you let them know you desire a Linux desktop version?

[old_noob]

I would love to be able to run Android apps natively on linux, i.e. no VM or emulator. So much stuff comes as a mobile app only these days and I hate fiddling with a phone or tablet when it could be right on my desktop.

[Mroptonix]

OneNote or a software for note taking with online sync

This already exists: Next Notes app on Nextcloud.

"Nextcloud is an open source, self-hosted file share and communication platform. Access & sync your files, contacts, calendars & communicate and collaborate across your devices. You decide what happens with your data, where it is and who can access it." To learn more see: https://nextcloud.com/. It runs on your own server and you can access it through web, their desktop client and their iOS and Android apps. You could run it on a RaspberryPi at home for cheap or for a few bucks per month host it on a virtual server like https://www.vultr.com/ or DigitalOcean.

I have found nixnote that is the Linux version of Evernote, but it has not the same functionality and needs to develop to be better.
http://nixnote.org/NixNote-Home/

[Mroptonix]

2.a software to transfer data with wifi with high speed! (to another pc and mobile) such as share it

Between PCs you can use NitroShare (available for Linux, macOS, Windows). NitroShare also has integration for several file managers, like Nemo (Cinnamon) and Caja (MATE). Install it through Software Manager on Linux Mint. For other OSes download from https://nitroshare.net/.

NitroShare also have an Android app https://nitroshare.net/android/. They are working on an iOS app but that's not ready yet.

If you're more looking for automatic syncing folders between devices, use Syncthing (also supports BSD and not yet iOS).

I installed that both on Mint19 and on my android cellphone but it seems not work. (my laptop and phone connected to same WiFi and they can not find each other while sending a file)

[xenopeek]

I installed that both on Mint19 and on my android cellphone but it seems not work. (my laptop and phone connected to same WiFi and they can not find each other while sending a file)

Dangit. It looks (from the FAQ) that the Android version needs you to have NitroShare one version newer than is in Linux Mint 19 (0.3.4 instead of 0.3.3).

There is an official PPA that has the right version, but it doesn't support Linux Mint 19 (or actually Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic) yet. Possibly you can use the packages from Ubuntu 17.10 Artful by downloading them manually but I've not tested it: https://launchpad.net/~george-edison55/ ... ter=artful. Otherwise compiling from source.

Sorry. Debian/Ubuntu package bases can make things that should be easy very hard.

[Turtletronic]

- TotalCommander, once more
- MusicBee, the non-plus-ultra music library & player

[xenopeek]

- TotalCommander, once more

May I suggest Double Commander https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/. It's a cross-platform alternative to TotalCommander, touted by others as being better. It even supports TotalCommander plugins.

You can install it through the developer's build service here https://software.opensuse.org/download. ... blecmd-gtk. Click on Ubuntu for Linux Mint 17.x/18.x/19 or on Debian for LMDE 2/3. For Linux Mint 19 follow the xUbuntu 18.04 instructions, for Linux Mint 18.x xUbuntu 16.04 and for 17.x follow 14.04. For LMDE 2 follow Debian 8.0 and for LMDE 3 follow Debian 9.0.

- MusicBee, the non-plus-ultra music library & player

I don't have as complete a replacement suggestion for that. The player interface reminds me of Lollypop https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Lollypop. You may like that one. On Linux Mint 18.3 and 19 you can install Lollypop through the Flatpak category of Software Manager.

For automatic tagging of music files I don't have a suggestions as where I buy music the files already are tagged. But looking at MusicBee it uses MusicBrainz for this and MusicBrainz have a cross-platform music tagger called Picard: https://picard.musicbrainz.org/. You can install that on Linux Mint directly from Software Manager, just search for picard.

So not an all in one solution but perhaps Lollypop combined with Picard can fit the bill.

[JerryF]

...
As for TurboTax, have you let them know you desire a Linux desktop version?

I let them know too.

[BG405]

I would love to be able to run Android apps natively on linux, i.e. no VM or emulator. So much stuff comes as a mobile app only these days and I hate fiddling with a phone or tablet when it could be right on my desktop.

This! ⬆

Would be very useful for those of us who haven't the money (or the desire) to purchase one of these expensive, fragile gadgets. One of my mates recently knocked his Galaxy off the coffee table & it landed on the only unprotected area on the casing edge, cracking the screen. Hundreds of pounds to buy & reduced to scrap value just like that.

I find it very frustrating that so much stuff is now available as a smartphone app but not for a proper smart device i.e. a PC. It's what computers are for, after all, not something a telephone was originally intended to do .. and they could be so much better as a result.

[xenopeek]

I don't follow the "I want Android apps on Linux". Most apps on Android show ads in the program — while you're using it. It's bad enough I have to have such tripe on my phone but why would I want to have adware & spyware laden programs on my computer. I just want to run Linux on my phone

[Moem]

I just want to run Linux on my phone

That's not impossible... https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/

[JerryF]

As for TurboTax, have you let them know you desire a Linux desktop version?

Just to let others know:
This is the email I got with my question to Intuit (TurboTax).

Carl answered your question: Do you plan on having TurboTax for the Linux operating system platform?

This is a public user-to-user forum. TurboTax does not frequent this forum at this time of year, like they do at tax filing time. But I can tell you that there are absolutely no plans at this time to port the program to Linux. Why? Simple business decision. No profit in it.

[xenopeek]

No profit in it.

Let's take a look at that. Linux desktop marketshare is about 2% in the USA. Likely a bit higher among self-employed and small business owners.

If I understand the pricing for the desktop version correctly, TurboTax costs between $50 and $120. Let's assume the average plan people pick is the $80 package. According to Intuit's factsheet they have 5.3 million TurboTax desktop users in the USA. So that's a yearly revenue of $424 million (about 8% of their total yearly revenue). Given, it pales in comparison with the 28.5 million TurboTax online users in the USA, even if that version is a bit cheaper than the desktop version.

Anyway, 2% of that is $8.5 million a year. So it would really depend on what frameworks and libraries they used to develop their Windows and macOS desktop programs. If either of those uses something cross-platform or that is easily converted to Linux, it might be worth the effort. But it wouldn't surprise me, given the huge preference of users for their online version, that all their development effort and business planning goes towards that.

[JerryF]

No profit in it.

Let's take a look at that. Linux desktop marketshare is about 2% in the USA. Likely a bit higher among self-employed and small business owners.

If I understand the pricing for the desktop version correctly, TurboTax costs between $50 and $120. Let's assume the average plan people pick is the $80 package. According to Intuit's factsheet they have 5.3 million TurboTax desktop users in the USA. So that's a yearly revenue of $424 million (about 8% of their total yearly revenue). Given, it pales in comparison with the 28.5 million TurboTax online users in the USA, even if that version is a bit cheaper than the desktop version.

Anyway, 2% of that is $8.5 million a year. So it would really depend on what frameworks and libraries they used to develop their Windows and macOS desktop programs. If either of those uses something cross-platform or that is easily converted to Linux, it might be worth the effort. But it wouldn't surprise me, given the huge preference of users for their online version, that all their development effort and business planning goes towards that.

I can see their point. As you said, a larger percentage are online users, so they probably won't switch to desktop of Linux. Then there are users like I am, they'll be switching from the desktop version of Windows to Linux, so no new customers.

[mediclaser]

I used to do my taxes with those online tax services until I noticed I've been shortchanged on refunds due to logic bugs in the online software. From then on I've been doing the preparation myself and it's way faster because I don't have to go through those lengthy questionnaires. I just make sure I read the "What's new" section each year before doing the computations.

[Shadow in Fire]

The only reason I use Wine is to play vintage RPG games made by people from all over the world, due to the developers making their codebase restricted. Therefore, I'll need to keep using this "emulator" to be able to enjoy gaming without a Windows installation.

[Portreve]

I know he's considered an extremist, even among the GNU+Linux community, but the older I've gotten, the more I've seen on my own of business behavior generally and tech sector businesses in particular, and what has come to light through various whistleblowers and other sources in this last decade, I find myself totally agreeing with Richard Stallman.

Now, to be fair, there's a bunch of things he will not do or own or tolerate on his box which I do, own, and tolerate on mine, but that said, I will not keep or use anything proprietary on my computer. I only tolerate the MP3 format for use on the head unit of my car because it neither supports FLAC nor OGG. I create and modify M$ Office files, strictly for the benefit of my company, but I do so using LibreOffice.

Now, going back to the question of what software I'd love to see in GNU+Linux, I'd also love to see more business software. So, replacements for PeachTree and Great Plains (now Microsoft Dynamics GP), for FileMaker Pro and another database program which for some reason I just can't remember the name of (here, it may be more plausible to build software that just uses SQL in the background), and as I've said above, Apple's suite of software. Being able to fully replace Adobe's suite, and QuarkXPress, etc., would be great as well.

What we're really talking about here is increasing the number of case uses for desktop GNU+Linux that individuals and businesses alike can switch.

We also have to do something about school level indoctrination of Microsoft's products.

[JerryF]

...for FileMaker Pro and another database program which for some reason I just can't remember the name of (here, it may be more plausible to build software that just uses SQL in the background), ...

Would that be Access from Microsoft that you can't remember?

[Sir Charles]

I would love to be able to run Android apps natively on linux, i.e. no VM or emulator. So much stuff comes as a mobile app only these days and I hate fiddling with a phone or tablet when it could be right on my desktop.

This! ⬆

YES!